'Shock results' after GCSE reforms lead to first rise in grades of C or higher for three years

Headteachers said some schools were seeing "volatility" in results

GCSEs: This years results show a huge rise in maths but a drop in English

The proportion of GCSEs awarded a C or higher has risen for the first time in three years, but national figures also show large swings in English and maths results.

Headteachers said some schools were seeing "volatility" in results, warning that for some students, this could put their chances of a place at a top university such as Oxford or Cambridge, or their opportunity to go on to sixth-form college, at risk.

Results for England, Wales and Northern Ireland showed a sharp drop in English grades, with 61.7% of entries scoring A*-C, down 1.9 percentage points from last summer.

This is believed to be the biggest drop in the qualification's history.

Maths saw an opposite result, with 62.4% of entries gaining an A*-C grade, up a massive 4.8 percentage points on 2013.

Exam chiefs suggested that the changes in results were down to recent education reforms, including removing speaking and listening from final English grades, a decision that in England, only a teenager's first attempt at an exam would count in school league tables - a move which has hit early and multiple entries - less coursework and a switch by some students to take International GCSEs (IGCSE) in some subjects.

Overall, just over two-thirds (68.8%) of all entries scored A*-C, up 0.7 percentage points on last summer, according to statistics published by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ).

But the A*-G pass rate has fallen for the second year running, and is down 0.3 percentage points to 98.5% from 98.8% in 2013.

The proportion of entries awarded the highest grade has also fallen slightly, with 6.7% gaining an A*, down from 6.8% last year. It is the third year in a row that this has dropped.

Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), which represents many secondary school leaders, said they were getting a "very, very mixed picture" from schools, with slightly more concerns about maths than English.

He said the good news was that schools, teachers and students had worked hard to achieve their results in a "very challenging" environment.

There had been "volatility" in a significant number of schools of all types, he said.

"We're seeing some surprising results which have shocked some schools. They don't understand why, with the same teachers and a similar cohort, and they thought, adapting to the changes that had been announced, that's happened."

Mr Lightman added: "There are individual students who last year, or the year before, with the same work, might have got a higher grade. And if standards have been maintained, which Ofqual says, then that should not be the case and that is a major cause for concern."

Some students have received "shock results" which do not reflect their teachers' assessments of their abilities, he said.

"National statistics do not tell the story of an individual young person who has got a grade, and it may be a D rather than a C, or it may be an A rather than an A*, and remember that could mean Oxbridge or not, or Russell Group or not."

For others it could have an impact on their sixth-form studies.

JCQ said the fall in English grades could be down to strong candidates taking advantage of a final opportunity to sit the exam last winter, and a switch by students to take an International GCSE in the subject.

The removal of speaking and listening is also likely to have had an impact, particularly for students who are on the C/D grade boundary, it was suggested.

"If you look at the overall results, where speaking and listening is no longer contributing to the grade, it was always our view that would have more of an impact at the C/D borderline," Andrew Hall, chief executive of the AQA exam board said.

He suggested that the move to "first result counts" has had the most significant impact on entry patterns, and therefore results this year, dwarfing the impact of other changes.

This decision is likely to have meant that fewer lower-performing 15-year-olds are taking maths GCSE early, and bright students, who may have taken the qualification early in the past, are now sitting it in the summer, JCQ said.

In recent years there had been a growing trend towards schools entering pupils for exams early, or multiple times, but the new rule has changed this, and figures published earlier this year showed around a 40% drop in early entry across all subjects.

"What I think is really of note is the change in the 15-year-old results overall," Mr Hall said. "What is driving that is the 'first result counts'. Only the students who are really strong in the school's judgment are being entered at 15, whereas before they were being entered to see how they get on."

Schools Reform Minister Nick Gibb said: "An exams system had developed that worked against the best efforts of teachers and the best interests of pupils. These results show our plan for education is correcting that. The number of children now taking exams at the right time, the number studying for academic GCSEs and the higher standards achieved are hugely encouraging."

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